Danger, Mark Robinson, Danger

What does your Prius's computer know and when did it know it? According to Mark P. Robinson, Jr., famed auto liability litigator, that's the key to his upcoming case against Toyota, the world's biggest automaker. Even more succinctly, in a video Robinson presented to a breakfast audience at the Pacific Club in Newport Beach today, super-wonk Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak told us, "It's the software!"

Graciously, he didn't add "stupid," as James Car-ville might have. I guess I'm the only driver in America who thought there was still a Rube Goldberg-like relationship between my accelerator and engine. I assumed that I press the pedal, it resists, a complicated series of pulleys and levers is activated, and more gasoline is fed into the carburetor.

But of course I'm just toe-punching a signal to a computer. During the Q&A, another breakfast guest said that automakers are on the verge of disconnecting the mechanics of the steering system. Think about that for a second. It's weird. And who needs power steering when the steering wheel's a joystick? We'd better get a discount there.

It helps you appreciate why you want someone really smart writing the code, which is Robinson's point. A legend in legal circles for helping hold Ford liable for Pintos' exploding gas tanks in the 1970s, he and his colleagues are representing the plaintiffs who have sued Toyota because of injuries allegedly suffered as the result of "sudden unintended acceleration." As an instance of multi-district litigation, all the cases are being lumped together for trial before a federal judge in Orange County. Among those hearing Robinson's preview were two judges, Andrew J. Guilford of the U.S. District Court and William F. Rylaarsdam of the state Court of Appeals. I was the guest of Andy's and my St. John's friends, Bob and Ann Mosier.

"Now I'm going to tell you something you didn't know," Robinson said impishly during his half-hour talk. The basis of his case, at least so far, is that the problem isn't with Toyota's floor mats or accelerator pedals, as publicity about the company's recalls has led us to believe. He said the cars that malfunctioned didn't have brake override safety systems, an additional bit of computer code that gives the brakes permission to say "who's your daddy?" to the gas. That way, unintended acceleration notwithstanding, slamming on the breaks instantly solves the problem.

Robinson said that some Toyota, GM, and Chrysler cars have it. As recent ads by Toyota's arch competitor make clear, Nissan has had it in all its cars since 2004. Veedubs have had it for ten years (way to go, Valerie and Mark!).

Robinson stresses that he's just getting started in the case and looks forward to hearing Toyota's side of the story. Indeed careful preparation is said to be his hallmark. But once his tank is full, legal experts say he disconnects his brake override safety system and pretty much punches it.

How To Perform Economic Stimulus At Home

While the White House in Washington was finished in 1800, the Anaheim White House is a mere 100 years old -- although in southern California, that's un casa blanca mucha vieja. The stately old residence has been a restaurant for years. Bruno Serato bought it in 1987. His award-winning menu is a tasty melange of European cuisines with a stress on northern Italy. It's a wonderful date and anniversary choice, with a courtly, knowledgeable staff. Bruno and his team also cater many events in the Nixon Library's White House East Room.

Soon after Tim Naftali was named the first federal director of the Nixon Library, Kathy and I hired the White House to prepare a dinner in his honor for some church friends (including the other Bruno, J. Jon, the Episcopal bishop of Los Angeles), at our home in Yorba Linda. Bruno Serato's internationally noted executive catering chef, Maurice Brazier, and Madame Brazier arrived two hours before dinner, perhaps thinking just for a moment that they had located servants' quarters behind a larger estate where the meal would actually be prepared and served. Chef Maurice and his colleagues did a masterful job maneuvering around one another in Kathy's lovely if normal suburban kitchen.

The Anaheim White House was in the news this week, and it wasn't a restaurant review. Did the Nixon connection finally doom our friend Bruno to controversy? Not quite. Wrong party. The shrimp hit the pan only after he announced to 20,000 on his customer e-list that he'd unveiled a Barack Obama Room (above). The President's hardly Bruno's first modern Democrat, since he has long had Roosevelt, Truman, Kennedy, and Carter rooms. But for some, Obama was beyond the kale. As the Orange County Register reported yesterday:

"I am not an Obama supporter," read one angry e-mail. "I could never be, and as much as having an African-American in the White House could be a good thing, having one with Marxist ideals is certainly not a good thing! I will not be patronizing your restaurant, much less the 'Obama Room.'"

Bruno (who won't disclose his own 2008 vote) wisely alerted the media to the controversy, resulting in a richly-deserved boost in a down economy for fine dining. Bravo, Bruno, for your bipartisan marketing flare!

I served up a political puree of my own recently that probably got one star at best in some circles. On Jan. 9 at the Nixon Library and again yesterday at the Pacific Club in Newport Beach, courtesy of St. John's friends Bob and Ann Mosier, I gave a talk in which I said that President Obama had strong Nixonian tendencies (Bruno's Richard Nixon room is at right). First, both Presidents have displayed a gnawing hunger for reconciliation, which 37 practiced on the international stage (in a way that would've greatly pleased his Quaker mother, Hannah) and which Obama, as he works through his complex familial and ethnic heritage, aims for politically and domestically. Second, I surmised that since Obama, like Nixon, believes that history is on the side of the principles he loves, both will be remembered for being satisfied by incremental, pragmatic change most of the time. But third, just as Nixon achieved exponential change by engineering his opening to China, Obama has already staked out the Israel-Palestinian issue as his bid for foreign policy greatness, even though most other Middle East-embroiled Presidents have tasted ashes -- with the exception of Jimmy Carter at Camp David, which must have been as rich as Maurice's Bearnaise sauce.